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On January 21, 2011 at Bearden High School, Thom Mason, CEO of UT-Batelle and director of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, presented a gift of $450,000 to Knox County Schools Superintendent Jim McIntyre and Buzz Thomas, President of the Great Schools Partnership. This generous gift will fund distance learning programs at all of the Knox County High Schools.
Mason said the gift "represents the kind of partnership that will be needed to move education forward in a period of limited resources. We must be creative, and we must realize that technology provides the chance for teaching and learning to take place across county lines."
 | | Mason, McIntyre and Thomas |
On behalf of the Knox County Schools, Superintendent McIntyre said, "We are thrilled that UT-Battelle is partnering with the Knox County Schools in the distance learning initiative, which will allow high-quality instruction in special subjects to be shared more broadly. Partnering with this world-class national laboratory will provide extraordinary opportunities for our students and will be instrumental in ensuring our children are prepared for the 21st century world."
Distance learning labs will allow Knox County to offer high end STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) instruction despite a statewide shortage of STEM instructors. In addition, the network would enable Knox County to take advantage of its new STEM Academy partnership with UT-Batelle and the University of Tennessee. With the most talented faculty and most rigorous and relevant course offerings, the new academy could offer many of its courses to students at surrounding high schools in real time via distance learning.
Buzz Thomas, President of the Great Schools Partnership, said "It's important to remind ourselves that these individual projects - whether distance learning or the new STEM Academy - are part of a larger strategic plan to help create a world class school system here in Knox County. Having the world's premier science laboratory now as a partner in our efforts takes us a giant step closer to achieving our goals."
Over the next 3 years, this gift for distance learning will allow each high school to have a classroom equipped to send and receive interactive videoconferencing instruction. The generosity of UT-Battelle is helping the efforts to transform the Knox County schools into a great school system. | 
